Former Calgary Flames radio broadcaster Peter Maher passes away
A legendary voice of hockey in Calgary has been lost.
On Thursday, former Calgary Flames radio broadcaster Peter Maher passed away at the age of 79.
Maher was the radio play-by-play announcer for the Flames from the 1980-81 season, the team’s first in Calgary, until his retirement upon the completion of the 2013-14 season. A true ironman, Maher called every Flames game over those 33 years on Calgary’s sports radio station CFAC.
The Campbellton, New Brunswick native called many significant moments for the Flames over the years, including the team’s Stanley Cup Championship in 1989 and their runs to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1986 and 2004. He was also the radio voice for Sportsnet’s hockey coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and called Sidney Crosby’s iconic ‘Golden Goal’ in overtime of the men’s gold medal game between Canada and the United States.
Maher became known for his famous ‘Yeah Baby!’ catchphrase he would use to punctuate big goals or moments for the Flames, and for capping each Flames victory by exclaiming “You can put it in the win column!”
Born in New Brunswick, Maher showed an early aptitude for broadcasting when he began to announce the lineups for the Campbellton softball league at the age of 14. He went on to broadcast for the International Hockey League and North Shore Hockey League before beginning his professional broadcasting career as the radio play-by-play announcer for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1977.
By the time Maher retired following the 2013-14 season, he had called a total of 2,954 Flames games and 3,162 NHL games overall. On November 18, 2014, the broadcast booth at the Scotiabank Saddledome was named the Peter Maher Radio Broadcast Booth in his honour during a ceremony ahead of a Flames home game against the Anaheim Ducks.
